Pubdate: Tue, 03 Apr 2007
Source: Ft. Worth Star-Telegram (TX)
Copyright: 2007 Star-Telegram, Fort Worth, Texas
Contact:  http://www.star-telegram.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/162
Author: Don Reynolds

COMPASSION ISSUE

A November 2005 nationwide Gallup poll showed that 78 percent of 
Americans "support making marijuana legally available for doctors to 
prescribe in order to reduce pain and suffering." State medical 
marijuana initiatives have been repeatedly endorsed by voters. Three 
state legislatures -- in Hawaii, Rhode Island and Vermont -- have had 
the courage to stop arresting patients without a drive from the voters.

This isn't a partisan issue -- it's a compassion issue.

Many of the legal alternatives proposed by opponents of medical 
marijuana are too expensive and too addictive and have too many side 
effects to be good medicine for all patients. Chemotherapy patients 
who are too nauseated to eat or swallow a pill shouldn't have to fear 
arrest if they -- and their doctors -- find that smoking marijuana is 
the most effective means of treating their symptoms.

When they have their doctors' approval, patients should be able to 
use medical marijuana without fear of arrest and imprisonment. They 
also should be able to rely on a safe supply of marijuana, without 
having to resort to the dangerous criminal market.

State government should use tax money to prosecute violent crime, not 
punish medical marijuana users.

For all of these reasons, our Legislature should enact laws that 
protect patients from arrest and imprisonment.

Don Reynolds, Ponder
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MAP posted-by: Elaine